I’ve struggled for years to get my son to write. I mean, he knows how to write, but he doesn’t like writing, the writing process or even coming up with ideas for writing. It really doesn’t matter if it’s a topic he enjoys or not.
The idea of putting his thoughts into written form has always been difficult. This has been the struggle regardless of the variety of writing curriculum I’ve chosen in the past. Over the years I’ve tried many things to introduce writing outside the curriculum box.
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I’ve tried everything from talk to text apps, utilizing Microsoft Word to allow him to type instead of physically writing, fun writing games like Mad Libs and Story Cubes all of which seemed like a fun solution to the struggle. But, what I’ve come to realize is that they were all short-lived solutions.
When Writing Doesn’t Come Easy
Grammar has never been the problem. In fact, he delightfully loves to edit other’s works. The issue lies in his desire to take his thoughts and work through them to place them in written form. Part of it is struggling with knowing what to write and another part is just his willingness to do so. When he wants to, he can tell fantastic stories. When he is willing he writes really great things.
Let me say this, my son is not a slacker when it comes to school work. In fact, he is very diligent about doing his assignments, doing them well, and on-time. But with his perfectionistic tendencies writing has been difficult because he knows that perfection is not something that can be reached in the process. Through the years the struggle for creative writing has been so pronounced that I often just give up, and let it go. But with high school years, I can no longer do this. He has to get past the fear of writing and figure it out.
Recently, he was able to talk with an architect we know. Which was awesome because that’s what he wants to be when he grows up. As they were talking the architect tells my son that the one skill he really needs to build and be confident in is his communication skills. He will need to be able to send professional emails and other correspondence, write reports, proposals, and be able to present findings to clients and team members. I think hearing this from a professional architect has changed his perspective on setting to the task and being willing to learn the writing process.
As such, I’ve come to understand that I need to provide him with a comprehensive curriculum that will guide him through step-by-step the process of writing. He’ll need to learn not only writing for correspondence but also exposition, descriptive, persuasive and narrative because whether or not he uses each of these in his professional career, he will need them for his collegiate career and for life as an adult.
A Writing Curriculum that Teaches Real World Application
Which is why I’m delighted with Writers in Residence from Apologia. Rather than focusing on each form of writing individually, the author Debra Bell has developed the lessons that reflect the reality of how adults use the forms in the real world. Most often multiple writing types are used in conjunction when formulating a written piece in both workplace and personal settings. This allows the student to practice, and to master the skills they’ll need to successfully write throughout their adult life.
What I really love is that it takes the process puts it into a comprehensive, complete language arts curriculum. They have broken the process down into bite-size, easy to consume daily lessons. Which for a struggling learner means they aren’t overwhelmed trying to complete a written work in one single lesson.
I should have known years ago that he needed a daily guide. I’m now seeing that the structure of a complete curriculum with daily lessons is more fitting for his ability to focus on what’s needed to be completed.
Writers in Residence fits the bill when it comes to a structured writing course because it incorporates grammar, and usage while they are simultaneously learning the writing process.
6 Reasons Why Writers in Residence is a Helpful Writing Curriculum
For me, creative writing comes easy. But for my analytical thinking son writing out of context has no place in his world. Which is why Writers in Residence takes the grumbling out of the daily assignments. The lessons help him to put writing into a reasonable context with how people communicate in the real world.
- Teaches writing from a real-world perspective like adults write in both their professional and personal lives.
- Teaches the writing model & process.
- Incorporates language arts throughout the lessons.
- Through editing allows students to build spelling skills.
- Teaches writing through modeling using example exerts from professional writers.
- Helps students develop their skills in small, bite-sized, lessons taking the frustration out of the equation.
Having a curriculum that isn’t boring, and requiring a student to write sentences and paragraphs that have no meaning to their own lives just isn’t going to cut it with my son. But, Writers in Residence has a different approach and thus different results.
About the Writers in Residence Writing Curriculum
With Writers in Residence, you’ll discover a complete guide for both the teacher and the student for how to use the curriculum. You’ll find handy guides explaining the six traits of the writing model, an introduction to the writing process, a rubric checklist for the student as well as in the answer key for evaluating and grading assignments, and much more. Because Writers in Residence is published by Apologia, you will discover that the curriculum is written with a Christian worldview and highlights professional Christian authors throughout.
- Visually appealing layout, and graphics for age-appropriate level
- Suggested Daily Lesson Plan for a 4-Day week
- Covers 32 Weeks of materials
- 6 Units, 24 Modules all together + a Final Review
- You get both the All-in-One Student Text & Workbook, along with the Answer Key
This comprehensive writing curriculum is ideal for middle school, grades 4-8. I’m using it with my high school kid because he’s a struggling writer. The lessons are written in a way that a student won’t feel out of place regardless of their age.
Buy the selected items together to have everything you need for the curriculum. Now available on Amazon.
This guided curriculum is the breakthrough I’ve been searching for. With the daily lesson plans to help my son see that his tasks are not overwhelming, coupled with the guides that I can use to show him again and again that writing is a process and perfection is not the goal, but rather progress is, I feel confident that this will be the year when writing struggles will become a thing of the past.
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